Live data from Hacker News

Apple unveils contactless payments via Tap to Pay on iPhone

apple.com

511–520 of 736 posts

Re: Apple unveils contactless payments via Tap to Pay on iPhone

#511
post #466

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Contactless bank cards were widespread in the UK before Apple or Google had their own payment systems. I think the "real story", as it were, is that the banking industry held contactless payments way more than Apple ever did.

Right, and with the advent of NFC in phones, US consumers didn't need the banks' permission to pay contactlessly. Despite this, contactless payment adoption was still slow in the U.S. even though most phones had NFC, it wasn't critical mass until Apple finally decided to support NFC technology.

You do actually need the bank's permission to enroll a card for Apple/Android Pay, it is a feature they have to support.

Re: Apple unveils contactless payments via Tap to Pay on iPhone

#512
post #23
post #14

Clarification due to a somewhat confusing title: This is about the merchant using an iPhone to accept credit cards and other Tap to Pay devices. The customer was able to pay with Tap to Pay with their iPhone for a while now.

The long slow road to contactless payments. Almost 2 decades along in the technology adoption curve. I was ready for this in 2005. https://money.howstuffworks.com/personal-finance/debt-manage... If course as the article points out, it wasn’t even new technology back then: “ Not Exactly New Tech Mobile introduced the Speedpass in 1997. Speedpass is a small device on a keychain (called a fob) that users wave in front o…

I haven’t used cash in Australia in about 5 years, maybe longer.

Re: Apple unveils contactless payments via Tap to Pay on iPhone

#514
post #451

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in the US and the only time I can remember going to an ATM in the past 5 years is because farmers markets sometimes give you discounts > credit card rewards for cash and weed shops cannot use banks so you have to pay cash.

IMO farmers markets would disappear if they stopped using cash. It's basically synonym for tax avoidance sprinkled with some fraudulent claims how your honey cures everything.

I totally agree farmers markets are all about tax avoidance. They would charge me the flat dollar amount for cash but then add in the tax when I used a card. No way they are paying taxes on that cash transaction.

Re: Apple unveils contactless payments via Tap to Pay on iPhone

#515
post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, here in Canada the magstrip has all but gone the way of the dodo - it's chip-and-pin or tap everywhere here. IIRC vendors here stopped taking magstrips before the Americans even. Cards still have magstrips on them but I can't remember the last time one got used. Maybe a gas station.

Same in Aus. I think banking innovation like this is way easier in smaller countries like australia because there’s way fewer banks. The USA has hundreds of banks - so getting them to all agree on a standard is near impossible. It’s no wonder America still uses ACH and cheques. Australia has just 6 banks. And they have a history of collaborating on things like this - since a fluid economy raises all boats, and fraud…

[deleted]

Re: Apple unveils contactless payments via Tap to Pay on iPhone

#516
post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, here in Canada the magstrip has all but gone the way of the dodo - it's chip-and-pin or tap everywhere here. IIRC vendors here stopped taking magstrips before the Americans even. Cards still have magstrips on them but I can't remember the last time one got used. Maybe a gas station.

Same in Aus. I think banking innovation like this is way easier in smaller countries like australia because there’s way fewer banks. The USA has hundreds of banks - so getting them to all agree on a standard is near impossible. It’s no wonder America still uses ACH and cheques. Australia has just 6 banks. And they have a history of collaborating on things like this - since a fluid economy raises all boats, and fraud…

[deleted]

Re: Apple unveils contactless payments via Tap to Pay on iPhone

#517
post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked in the mobile industry back in 2010s. Every carrier had big shiny projects called "mobile payments" going on. They were exploring, together with banking partners how they could revolutionize contactless payments. A key factor why all these project failed wasn't the technology. As you rightly point out, the technology was already available back then. It was mainly the vast differences in business models in th…

Honestly, I think it was Apple refusing to fully support NFC until 2016 that prevented the market from jumping on contactless payments, at least in the US. They were holding something like a third of the market back from doing it which really made selling adoption to merchants difficult.

Apple never played a significant role in any project since their install base was just too small.

Apple is a company with a clear focus. They didn’t even support MMS in the first iPhone. Rightly so.

Re: Apple unveils contactless payments via Tap to Pay on iPhone

#518
post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, here in Canada the magstrip has all but gone the way of the dodo - it's chip-and-pin or tap everywhere here. IIRC vendors here stopped taking magstrips before the Americans even. Cards still have magstrips on them but I can't remember the last time one got used. Maybe a gas station.

Same in Aus. I think banking innovation like this is way easier in smaller countries like australia because there’s way fewer banks. The USA has hundreds of banks - so getting them to all agree on a standard is near impossible. It’s no wonder America still uses ACH and cheques. Australia has just 6 banks. And they have a history of collaborating on things like this - since a fluid economy raises all boats, and fraud…

There's a similar situation in Switzerland, where a handful of banks dominate the national market despite some smaller (cantonal) options that mostly have their own consortium anyway. The larger banks cooperated on creating a mobile payments platform known as TWINT [1], which allows for fast and free individual payments for splitting the cost of a meal, private sales, or even many in-store transactions. This allows them a competitive advantage over alternatives such as small Swiss banks or foreign banks that the many non-Swiss residents in Switzerland may otherwise continue using. These other options are relegated to IBAN transfers which are notably less convenient.

[1] https://www.twint.ch/en/

Re: Apple unveils contactless payments via Tap to Pay on iPhone

#520

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something I was thinking about the other day is how some modern credit cards technically have four different ways to pay. Swiping pressure-sensitive paper over the raised numbers (the original method) is still possible, though I haven't seen a merchant actually do this since maybe the mid-2000's. Then you have magstripe, chip, and RFID all in the same card. Pretty impressive backwards compatibility, although I think…

> original copy-to-paper mechanism And when the pressure-stamp machine broke, the merchant would use a pen, and write the card number by hand. No problem.

Or just drag the length of the pen over the paper while card is underneath. Repeat a couple of times to get a good imprint while making sure to keep paper/card alignment
Post reply on HN